Friendship as a scientific method

• Published in: The Sociological review (Keele) Vol. 67; no. 2; pp. 299 - 317
• Main Author: Ramírez-i-Ollé, Meritxell
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.03.2019; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Between-subjects design; Curiosity; Dissent; Dominance; Ethics; Friendship; Mutuality; Natural sciences; Playfulness; Relatedness; Research ethics; Research subjects; Scientific knowledge; Scientific method; Social isolation; Social research; Sociology of knowledge; epistemology; friendship; methodology; science; sociology
• ISSN: 0038-0261; 1467-954X
• DOI: 10.1177/0038026119829760

Friendships formed in the course of scientific research are common and should be foregrounded in discussions of how the sciences are done. Inspired by the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge, I propose a ‘symmetrical’ analysis of friendships in both the social and natural sciences as a way of comparing knowledge-making practices. The research question that derives from this approach is: How are friendships with and between subjects generative of new forms of scientific knowledge and new types of relating? I provide an answer based on my experience of befriending a group of dendroclimatologists to whom I referred metaphorically as ‘my chimps’ in an analogy with the primatologist Jane Goodall’s affectionate relation with her research subjects. In my case, befriending dendroclimatologists involved cultivating a curiosity about each other’s research and worlds through different means. As a result, my work also came to matter to them and we produced it collaboratively. The instrumentalisation of friendships for the purpose of achieving a certain control and agreement with subjects and beings is, I argue, a normal aspect of knowledge formation, and should not be seen as unethical. If anything, befriending subjects promotes better research ethics as it generates a form of mutuality based on partial relatedness, constructive dissent and playfulness, rather than hybridity, totalising consensus and domination. Overall, my argument about friendship as a method in science seeks to criticise the ideal that isolation and indifference are at the heart of the way scientific knowledge, both social and natural, is and should be made.